Familiar Faces
by Eunoia
Summary: Angel is surprised by familiar and notso familiar faces. I suck at summaries. Please read anyway. Crossover with BtVS. Please Review! Even if you don't like it or don't have anything interesting to say, I just want feedback. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or situations. Joss does.  
  
Author's Note: Slightly AU. Set about a year after Angel and co. go to Wolfram and Hart, except none of the Illyria/Cordy/Lindsey/Eve stuff ever happened. And neither did Harm's Way. Pretty much Angel, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, and Wesley are just doing their usual jobs at W&H, and Cordy's still in her coma. Oh, and Spike is still dead. The first of my fics to have more than one part.  
  
"Harmony!" Angel yelled. He had been waiting for his blood for half an hour now, and his twit of an assistant was nowhere to be found. He had no idea why he, or Wesley rather, had hired her anyway. He had to admit though, it was nice to have someone who knew what good blood tasted like. Cordelia had tried hard, so he never had the heart to tell her the cinnamon was disgusting. He smiled to himself at the memory of how proud she was of her little culinary discovery. Ingesting that horrible stuff had been worth it just for the look on her face. Part of the reason he put up with Harmony was that she was a reminder of Cordelia, but a substitute she wasn't. Not that he would want her to be. All he wanted was Cordy back.  
  
There was a knock on the door. "Finally, Harm!" he exclaimed. "I have been waiting for—." Suddenly he realized it wasn't Harmony standing in the doorway but rather a tall, dark-haired girl wearing jeans and a tank top. For a moment his heart leapt at the thought that it was Cordy, but before he could jump up and make a fool of himself, he realized it wasn't her. The girl did look familiar though.  
  
"Angel, hey. Sorry, your secretary didn't seem to be around, so I let myself in."  
  
Well this was embarrassing. She seemed to know him, and he didn't...all of a sudden he realized who it was. She had definitely grown up a lot since he last saw her, but it was her alright.  
  
"Dawn?"  
  
"Yeah. Sorry, it looks like I'm interrupting a brood. I'll come back when you're chipperer...or whatever the word is for more chipper. Although that probably won't be any time soon, so maybe—"  
  
"Dawn, what are you doing here? Is it Buffy?" Angel was immediately worried. He couldn't handle something happening to Buffy again. Not now, with Cordy too.  
  
"Buffy? Oh no, she's fine. I'm staying with my dad this summer, so I just thought I'd drop by," she said casually, as she came up and sat in the chair, twirling around. "Ooh, swivelly. You must have a lot of fun with these things when no one's looking."  
  
Angel was confused. He would never understand teenagers. "You just thought you would drop by? We haven't seen each other in years."  
  
"Exactly. And can't two old friends catch up without an apocalypse looming over their heads?" Dawn put her feet up on his desk, then quickly removed them under his reproving stare.  
  
Angel was dumbfounded. He didn't want to hurt the girl's feelings, but he would hardly call them friends. Last time he saw her she was about twelve, and the only times they ever really spoke were when he was helping Buffy to rescue her from one perilous position or another. "Um, I guess we could hang out then." He awkwardly sat back down in his chair. It was strange to think that Buffy had been this age when they met. This girl seemed so far removed from his world. "So, good weather, huh?"  
  
Dawn resisted the urge to laugh at his social awkardness. "Um, yeah. Much better than Cleveland. That's where we've been staying."  
  
"Right, so I heard." Angel nodded about a dozen times, willing himself to say something else, but finally Dawn spoke instead.  
  
"Alright, this is too weird. The reason I actually came was I was hoping you could give me a job for the summer."  
  
"A job? I run a law firm, and seeing as you're sixteen, I doubt very much you have a law degree, so I don't really see..."  
  
"Seventeen. And I could help you fight! I mean, you do still fight, right?"  
  
"Of course," Angel responded indignantly. "I mean no. I mean I fight, but you can't. Buffy would never let me hear the end of it if I gave her baby sister a job fighting demons." Dawn scowled at the use of the term 'baby'. "Can't you work at McDonald's or something?"  
  
"But I don't want to work at McDonald's. Buffy's enjoying living a normal life, since she's been fighting for so long, but I kind of miss the whole evil-fighting gig. I feel useless in school, and I'd feel even more useless working for Mickey D's. Besides, the year before the town collapsed, I was totally Buffy's right hand gal. I got wicked good with a stake. I totally just staked a vamp down in the parking lot."  
  
"So if I called Buffy right now, she would say it was fine for you to fight demons professionally all summer?"  
  
Dawn looked away. "Well, maybe not. Okay, well, I could do something else. Research or something!"  
  
"We have a team of highly trained professionals doing that, some of them ex- watchers, all of them with at least seven languages. I don't know how much help you could really be."  
  
Dawn's face fell. "Oh. Well, I could—"  
  
"Wait a second," Angel interrupted. "You staked a vamp in the parking lot?"  
  
"Yeah. I told you I'm a total badass. And you'll never guess who it was."  
  
"Oh God, it wasn't Harmony was it?"  
  
"Whoa. I thought Cordelia was the psychic one."  
  
"No. It's just that we have tamper-proof vamp detectors in the building, so the only ones that can get onto the premises are Wolfram & Hart employees or clients. As far as I know, Harmony and I are the only employees, and we didn't have any vamp clients scheduled for today. Plus, she's like forty minutes late to bring me my blood."  
  
Dawn was really confused. "Okay, hold up. Harmony works for you? You have vampire clients?" Suddenly she leapt up from the chair and back away towards the door. "Oh my God, Angelus?" she asked.  
  
Angel rolled his eyes. "I'm not Angelus. I'm wearing a tie, for God's sake."  
  
"Right, 'cause Angel's so known for his tie collection. If you're not Angelus, then why would you have vampires working for you and vice versa?"  
  
Angel was about to answer when he realized exactly how absurd his situation was. If he didn't know better, he would think he was evil too. "Look Dawn, I'm not exactly sure how I got in this position either, but you can trust that it's me. And if I were evil, why would I tell you about the vampires working for me?"  
  
"It doesn't make much sense to me either, but better safe than sorry, right? I'm not as trusting as Buffy was, okay? No dropping the crossbow and baring my neck this time, buddy." She pulled a stake and a cross out of her jacket pockets as she said this, still backing towards the door, but still curious enough not to leave.  
  
"You were there?"  
  
"I hid outside. I was looking through the window. When Buffy and Mom found out I was grounded for a month. In retrospect, probably not that smart of me."  
  
"Yeah, probably not," said Angel angrily, thinking about what Darla might have done to her if she found her. He took a step towards her, but she moved back again, all the way to the door.  
  
"Where's Cordelia?"  
  
"What?" That wasn't what he expected to hear. As far as he knew, Dawn barely knew Cordy.  
  
"Where is she? If you're not evil, then tell me where she is so I can ask her for myself."  
  
Angel looked down. "She's in the hospital."  
  
"Oh God. What did you do to her?"  
  
"Nothing!" The reply came out angrier than expected.  
  
"Where's, um, that other guy then? Buffy's old watcher? He works for you now, right? I want to talk to him."  
  
"Dawn, you don't have to—"  
  
"I want to talk to him!"  
  
"Fine. I'm just going to go to my desk and call him."  
  
"Where's his office? I'll go see him myself."  
  
Angel almost smiled despite himself. Dawn really had grown pretty tough. He was heartened to know that if he ever should revert to his soulless self, she would be able to take care of herself. "Down the hall to the right."  
  
Dawn took off down the hallway. Angel figured following would just scare her more, so he sat back down at his desk. After a few minutes, Dawn came back into the room, followed by Wesley, looking kind of embarrassed.  
  
"Okay, so your soul's intact. But you can't blame me for being careful."  
  
"You're right. I can't. Now can we get back to the business of you killing my assistant?"  
  
"Oh yeah, about that; Wesley's explained that she works for you and all, but I'm not going to apologize or anything. She tried to bite me!"  
  
"She did!?" both Wesley and Angel asked in unison.  
  
"Yuhuh."  
  
"But Harmony doesn't..."  
  
"She's a vampire with no soul and no chip, who just doesn't kill humans to impress you guys? Please. She saw me, recognized me as Buffy's sister, and started freaking out that I was bait in some big trap. Then she tried to attack me, so I killed her."  
  
"But that would be so stupid of..." started Wesley, trailing off. "Ah."  
  
"Yeah. Harmony's never been known for her immense intellect, has she boys?"  
  
The two men looked at each other, embarrassed at having allowed a killer to work for them for a year. Even if she only killed under stress, it still seemed like enough to revoke their good guy membership cards.  
  
"You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you Dawn?" Angel asked.  
  
Dawn suddenly got a devious look in her eye. "No, of course not. Not if you give me her job."  
  
Angel smiled. This girl had the manipulative streak of a, well of a Cordy. But being blackmailed into hiring someone was even more reason for his 'good guy'ness to be revoked. "Look Dawn, I'm sorry, but why don't you take this opportunity to spend some time with your father, and—"  
  
"Angel, I'm supposed to be spending this time with him! I know that. Don't you think I was excited when he said he wanted to reconnect with me!? Buffy wouldn't even consider coming, but I wanted to. I thought it was going to be just like when I was little, but he's never home. He's leaving on a business trip tomorrow for two weeks, and even when he's in town he doesn't get home till late anyway! I'm not going to spend my summer sitting around an empty apartment, feeling sorry for myself! I'm going to do some good and if you won't hire me then I'll be forced to wander around dark alleys at night, armed only with a stake and my razor-sharp wit!"  
  
Angel had hoped that Buffy's father had gotten his shit together by now, but it sounded like he hadn't. Since everything with Connor, he had even more trouble understanding how someone could be fortunate enough to have two amazing children and then just not want to see them. He could still remember how hurt Buffy was when her father hadn't made it to her birthday figure skating thing. At least she had Giles. Dawn had no one. She didn't have Joyce anymore, and thanks to her father's false promises she didn't even have Buffy right now.  
  
Dawn watched Angel's face, knowing that the sad little orphan girl act would probably work on him. That was all it was after all. She didn't mind that her dad was busy. She didn't really want to hang out with him anyway. Yeah, right. She wished she could think this way, but she couldn't. She may as well use the anger to her advantage anyway.  
  
Dawn knew what he was going to say before he even opened his mouth. "Okay, you can have the job." She was glad she wasn't going to have to bring out the tears.  
  
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she squealed. "You won't regret this. I'm super-organized, and I used to heat Spike's blood for him all the time. Have you ever tried Weetabix crumbled in with it before? Gives it texture. Not that I would know, but that's what he claims. Or claimed. I don't know if you would like the same way or not, but..." Dawn continued in this vein for the better part of ten minutes, before Angel had to go for an "appointment." He sent Dawn over to Lorne for orientation, hoping the green guy could keep her off his hands for a while. It was going to be a long summer. 


	2. Chapter 2

After he got it used to her, Angel actually started enjoying Dawn's company. He tended to go on 'brooding jags' as she called them, and she was pretty good at snapping him out of them, convincing him to go out more. She got him Rock 'em, sock 'em robots for his 'birthday,' which was arbitrarily chosen by her, upon discovering he didn't remember when his was. She was shocked to know he had never heard of the toy, saying he would love it, and he would never admit to her that he actually did. She had a tendency to hum pop songs under her breath at all times, and she always sat on the desk instead of a chair, if she could get away with it. She said it made her feel like a 'working girl' and he didn't have the heart to tell her what that really meant.  
  
He thought she would be lonely, seeing as there weren't too many other people her age around, but he forgot she was used to that, and she quickly adapted. She grew especially close to Lorne and Fred. He tried not to, but he couldn't help wondering if she would have been friends with Connor. When Connor was a baby and Angel had imagined what he wanted his life to be like, friends like Dawn were part of the package. They would go bowling and watch movies, and do stupid kid stuff. Maybe Connor would come home after curfew, and Angel would have to ground him. And maybe all would be forgiven when Angel was there, cheering Connor on to victory at his soccer game. Then he would remember that that couldn't happen. But it could now. The only difference was the father.  
  
Unbeknownst to any of his friends, Angel kept a file on Connor and his family. The father was an engineer, and his wife was a high school principal. Connor, whose name was Ethan now, was in college. A good one too. He had a girlfriend and he had just bought a car from the income he earned working at a grocery store. Angel was glad that Connor wasn't in LA anymore, because he didn't think he'd be able to keep himself from 'accidentally' bumping into Connor, something he knew couldn't be good for either of them. So he added that to his long list of urges to suppress, and concentrated on work. And Dawn made that easier.  
  
About a month after Dawn arrived, he had a meeting with a Klingor and a T'Hashki demon, negotiating some sort of contract. He really needed Gunn around, but Gunn had the day off for the first time since they started and he didn't want to bother him, so he attempted to assuage the tension between the pair all on his own. As usual, this didn't work out too well, and Angel was forced to kill them both. The two types of blood were starting to crust onto his suit. Lorne was going to kill him. He had just bought him this suit at a very high end store.  
  
Angel headed out to Dawn's desk, to see if she couldn't do something about having it dry-cleaned before he had to see Lorne, but unfortunately Lorne was sitting at the desk with her. When he saw Angel he shrieked. "Oh God, what am I going to do with this boy?" he asked Dawn. "He gets slime on his couture, his idea of good music is Barry Manilow, and have you seen his office? Something gets smashed, it stays smashed. And the hair!? It's like, there are other ways to add inches. And don't even get me started on his..." Lorne trailed off, and then looked at Dawn excitedly. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Sweetcheeks?"  
  
In unison, the pair yelled "Queer Eye makeover!"  
  
Angel suddenly got scared. What were they talking about? "Wait, what?"  
  
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me you've never heard of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?"  
  
"What eye for the what guy?"  
  
"Queer. Straight," answered Lorne.  
  
"But I-I'm not—"  
  
"What, straight?" Dawn giggled.  
  
Lorne gave her a knowing look. "That's not quite as ludicrous as you may think, hun."  
  
"No way. Angel?"  
  
"Well, he's no Liberace, but the boy's had a few trysts in his day. But who among us hasn't, right?"  
  
"Lorne! You can't tell people what you read from me!"  
  
"Oh my God, it is true!?" Dawn squealed. "With who? Oh my gosh, I bet it was Spike, right?"  
  
"Lorne, if you answer that, you're fired."  
  
"I'm sorry, Muffin, but Dawnie and I have no secrets." Lorne and Dawn burst into a fit of laughter, until Angel could take it no more and had to get out of there. "I'll be in Wesley's office if you need me!"  
  
Dawn was still laughing when the phone rang. "Good afternoon, Wolfram and Hart, Angel's office. No, he's not in right now. Can I take a message? You're kidding. That's fantastic. I'll tell him right away." Dawn hung up.  
  
"Well?" Lorne looked at her expectantly. "Angel doesn't get fantastic news very often."  
  
Dawn smiled. "It's Cordelia. She's awake."  
  
A/N: The following chapters aren't going to be this kind of tone at all—much less fun. Probably. Unless I change my mind. 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long. I lost any inspiration I may have had on the first two chapters, plus there's that business of final exams. I finally got around to finishing the chapter, but it's really not what I was going for. I'm not that great with sad stuff.  
  
Lorne's face broke out into a huge smile. "Please tell me you're not kidding, and keep in mind that if you are, I'll bludgeon you to death with this chair."  
  
"Okay wow, even if I was kidding I wouldn't tell you, with a disclaimer like that. But I'm not. We'd better go tell Angel."  
  
"Damn straight." Lorne turned around and strode quickly towards Wesley's office. Dawn started to go with him, but not realizing this he said "Be back in a gif." Dawn stopped, pretending she hadn't been following. Cordy was their thing, not hers. She sometimes forgot she wasn't as much part of the gang as she liked to think. But it was good Cordelia would be back. Definitely. Dawn stood in the empty lobby nodding to herself. Definitely.  
  
A second later Wesley, Angel, and Lorne came rushing out of the office, Lorne on his cell phone, talking to Fred animatedly.  
  
"Dawn, I'll be gone for awhile. Hold my calls," said Angel, as they passed. Turning to Wes, he said "So, Fred's meeting us down at the parking lot, and Gunn's going to meet us at the hospital."  
  
They were almost at the elevator when Dawn called out after them. "Can I come?"  
  
The trio looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before all saying sure. Dawn rushed after them, squeezing into the elevator just before the door closed. "So, pretty exciting, huh?"  
  
"Yeah." Angel was smiling in a way Dawn had never seen before. It wasn't ironic, or tinged with sadness, or even evil. It was just happy. For the first time she started to wonder exactly what kind of relationship he and Cordelia had. She couldn't picture the Cordelia she knew and the Angel she knew together, but seeing him with that smile...  
  
In the limo, they sat in silence for awhile until someone broke out into a story about Cordelia, and soon everyone was chiming in. Dawn sat in between Fred and Wesley, feeling absolutely invisible. She actually had stories about Cordy too, not that anyone would think to ask. But it seemed like her Cordy was a very different person from theirs. Their stories were all about creative ways that Cordy killed demons, or the times (Dawn couldn't believe there was more than one) she was impregnated with demon spawn.  
  
Finally, when there was a lull in the conversation Dawn chimed in. "You know, Cordy used to babysit me." They all turned to look at her, almost as though they had just noticed her presence.  
  
"Cordelia? Babysit?"  
  
Suddenly Dawn felt self-conscious. "Yeah. I never told anyone, because she was way embarrassed, but she's probably over it by now, right? It was when her dad lost all the money. She was working retail, but it wasn't enough, and when my mom found out, she offered Cordelia the job of looking after me, when she and Buffy weren't around. She always left before Buffy got home, since she was embarrassed, but my mom never said anything."  
  
"Was she a good babysitter?"  
  
That struck Dawn as an odd question, but Fred had a tendency to ask those. "Yeah, actually. I thought she was just the bee's knees. I mean, she totally agreed with me that I was too old to have a babysitter, plus we had matching sets of complete contempt for my sister. She used to teach me stuff about proper hair care, and makeup, and stuff. And we'd talk about boys, which I thought was way cool of her, since Buffy didn't talk to me about anything. Plus, I loved how she didn't try to be all self-righteous like the rest of Buffy's friends. She made it quite clear that she was only fighting out of self-love, and the others just wouldn't admit that they were too. We agreed we'd leave the world-saving to Buffy, and the two of us would just look out for ourselves. If everyone had our attitudes, we figured Buffy wouldn't always need to be saving them all the time." Dawn smiled at the memories. She really was looking forward to seeing Cordy again.  
  
No one spoke. Finally Wesley said "Well, I had forgotten how much Cordelia had changed since her Sunnydale days. Hey, remember that time the Pyleans made her their queen?"  
  
"And then she—"  
  
"And with the—"  
  
Immediately they all started swapping war stories again. Dawn sighed, and silently thanked God that they were almost at the hospital.  
  
When they arrived, Angel rushed forward, opening the swinging doors with his trademark double push. She wouldn't have been surprised to see him do his trademark kicking in of the doors either. He just looked that eager to see his friend. They all did of course, but especially him. He spoke to the nurse first, and then turned to the rest of them. "She's still kind freaked out, so they say only one of us should go in at a time." He hesitated. "Do you mind if—?"  
  
"Go!" they all said, laughing.  
  
Angel slowly opened the door to the room. All of a sudden, he was nervous. He didn't know how much she remembered of what she had done; he hoped, for her sake, none of it. And he really wasn't sure if the Connor mindwipe had affected her or not. His best strategy was probably just to stay quiet and let her do the talking. Who was he kidding? This was Cordelia; of course she'd do the talking. His nerves dissipated. He was finally going to be able to talk to her again, and have her talk back.  
  
There she was, lying on the bed, looking frail, but gorgeous, as usual. He knew she would thank him for the manicures, pedicures, and facials he had had done. "Cordelia?" he asked softly.  
  
She blinked, her eyes still adjusting to the bright lights. "Who's there?"  
  
He was slightly hurt, but quickly chided himself for his immaturity. She had just woken up after being asleep for over a year. He could hardly fault her for not recognizing him immediately. "It's Angel."  
  
"Angel?" She sounded confused. "What are you—I'm so lost. They say it's 2004."  
  
"Yeah." Angel was worried. How much memory loss had she suffered? She really did look lost, and he wanted so badly to tell her that he had found her now, and that she would be fine. But he had never been much of a hugger and she was looking at him with such distance in her eyes...  
  
"I can't remember, Angel. Everything's so muddled. It's like I know so much has happened since I came to LA, but I can't remember what."  
  
Angel was shocked. "You don't remember anything since then?"  
  
She looked like she was about to cry. "I feel like it's all so close, like if I heard about it I would remember. And I have fragments. More than I had an hour ago, so that's something, right?" She looked up at him hopefully.  
  
"What kind of fragments?"  
  
"Just random things, like when you're flipping channels and you realize you've already seen something on one of them before. I feel like I was watching my body do these things, but it wasn't completely me."  
  
"Jasmine."  
  
"What? Oh, the baby. There was a baby. I remember. And it was stolen...or it was evil...or—godammit! I just can't remember." She looked so frustrated.  
  
"There were two babies. Yours and mine." As soon as he said it, he realized his mistake. He couldn't let her tell the others he had a kid. Well, he would leave that conversation for a little later. He needed to calm her down first.  
  
Her eyes widened. "We had kids together?"  
  
"No. We each had children, but not each other's."  
  
"Well, where are they? I can't believe I have a kid! Do I love it? Because if it's only a baby I could still give it up for adoption, right?"  
  
Angel didn't know what to tell her about Connor, so he skipped over to Jasmine. "She wasn't a baby baby. She...she was a demon. She took over your body. That's how you ended up in the coma."  
  
"Oh," she said in a small voice.  
  
"Look, Cordy, why don't we start from the beginning? What's the last clear memory you have?"  
  
"You call me Cordy?"  
  
"What? Yeah, of course."  
  
"Oh," she said again. "Okay, never mind. Alright, last clear memory. I had come to LA, was looking for an agent. I was at a party! Networking, you know? And you were there."  
  
"Is that the last thing you remember?"  
  
"Yeah—wait no! Russell Winters called, and he wanted to see me. I went to his house and, um, he was a vampire! And you saved me. And I remember thinking that I was not going to hang around any vampires anymore ever. I was considering going back to Sunnydale, where at least the vampires could be distinguished by their outdated fashion sense, and general lifestyle. Then, um..."  
  
"...You came to see me, and suggested we start working together. Remember?" Angel asked hopefully.  
  
"Now that you say it, it's like I know it happened, but like it was someone else. I mean, it was sort of still me, but I would never have done that. I mean, I'm an actress, not a slayer, and definitely not a do-gooder vampire's secretary."  
  
Angel's face fell. This was not how he had imagined their reunion.  
  
Seeing his disappointment, Cordelia rushed to cover her tracks. "Not there's anything wrong with being receptionist to the undead. I'm sure your Cordelia loved it."  
  
His Cordelia? Images started flashing through his head: Cordelia getting visions, kicking ass with a longsword, going after Billy with a crossbow and taser, falling asleep with him and Connor, sleeping on his shoulder at the ballet...how could that not be the real Cordelia? It was almost comforting to find out the Cordelia who slept with Connor and killed Lilah wasn't the real her, but to find out he never really knew her at all was unbearable. It was all false; his entire life since he came to LA was a lie. Because Cordy was the only constant and now...he shocked himself when he started crying. He hadn't cried in years; not even during the whole mess with Connor.  
  
Cordelia's eyes widened. "Stop it! You're freaking me out. I thought you were Mr. Dark Avenger guy." She really was starting to panic. From what she could tell, some force had been controlling her for the past five or six years. The early memories were pretty clear; they felt like her. But as time went by, she could remember less and less. It was like the force gradually started making more and more decisions, until she wasn't herself at all anymore. And now Angel had arrived and was obviously expecting her to be something she wasn't, and she didn't want to disappoint him, but really, she was the one who had been violated, and she should be the one who needed comforting. Not that she would cry in front of him, though. Cordelia Chase didn't cry around just anyone. Not real tears at least.  
  
"I'm sorry, Cordelia. I...I don't know what came over me." Angel wiped away the tears, and then just sat there, staring at her with that cancer of the puppy (note to self: stop channeling Xander) look in his eyes that she used to find hot, but now just found annoying.  
  
A knock came at the door. "Angel, it's me," came a vaguely familiar voice. The girl opened the door and Cordelia had to blink a few times before realizing it was Dawn.  
  
"Sorry Angel, everyone's really antsy to come see Queen C here, but they're all worried about not giving you enough time. Since I seem to be the only insensitive one who doesn't care about your feelings, I was nominated to come tell you to hurry up." Dawn flashed a smile, knowing that looking cute was her best strategy at not getting snapped at. "Hey Cordy," she said shyly, finally looking at her former babysitter. "Welcome back. We missed you in Sunnydale. Buffy's ego got wildly out of control without you to trample on it."  
  
Somehow Dawn's presence was infinitely more comforting than Angel's. Cordelia supposed it must be the familiarity in this totally foreign place. With Dawn, she had never been anything but herself, and it showed in the way Dawn was looking at her, not as the second coming or some warrior goddess, but just as Cordelia Chase, the girl everyone in Sunnydale wanted to be. Suddenly it hit Cordy just how far from home she really was and she felt an unbearable urge to cry. Angel looked pained, but she honestly didn't care about his feelings. She barely knew the guy. She just wanted to be curled up in her bed in Sunnydale, with her teddy bear. Consuela would bring her some hot chocolate and she would paint her nails, while arguing with herself about whether to call Xander. But instead she was here in this ugly room that obviously hadn't seen an interior decorator in its lifetime, with this dopey over-gelled vampire staring at her as though she should clutch him to her chest and tell him she loved him. As if.  
  
Finally, she couldn't help herself. She started crying. Angel got that look that people get when they're thinking about hugging someone, and she instinctively pulled back, holding her arms out to Dawn, who, while not quite familiar in that she had become quite a hottie, was still the closest thing Cordelia had to a friend in this city. Dawn glanced at Angel for a moment, before stepping forward and hugging the crying woman. "I'm sorry, Dawnie. You know I'm not usually like this. It's just, everything's so different, and I've been gone so long, and..."  
  
"I know. It's okay. It'll be okay," Dawn responded, while not really knowing how to make things better.  
  
"I'll go and tell everyone she's okay," Angel said awkwardly, backing out of the room, as the two girls held each other. 


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: I'm really sorry for taking so long with this chapter. After the last one, I just lost my will to write. Well, this story at least. Feel free to read and review my other stories._  
  
The next day, Angel sat at his desk, supposedly working, but really just brooding. Even his Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots couldn't cheer him up. His gloom somewhat diminished his vampire hearing, so he nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a knock at his door.  
  
"Come in!"  
  
It was Dawn. He was somewhat disappointed at that; he didn't know what he expected. "Hey, Angel," she said softly. "How are you doing?"  
  
He gave her a look that seemed to say "How do you think I'm doing?"  
  
"Right. Duh. I just, uh, I just thought you might want to know how she's doing."  
  
"Her doctors already gave me all the information," he replied brusquely.  
  
"I know. I meant how she's doing, not how her body's doing."  
  
"Oh, right."  
  
"Well, she's calmed down a bit, but I think what she really needs right now is familiarity. I didn't have the heart to tell her about the crater formerly known as Sunnydale.'  
  
"Yeah, that would probably be a bit much for her," he muttered distractedly.  
  
Dawn stood there for another minute, in silence.  
  
"What!?" he snapped. "Is there anything else? Because I'm kind of busy."  
  
She glanced at his empty desk. "I just thought you might want to help her out. Try to get something familiar, from her high school days, to help her feel comfortable."  
  
"Like what?" Angel asked, his tone softening. Dawn was just trying to help, and it wasn't fair of him to hold it against her that Cordelia trusted her more than him. "Everything from Sunnydale's been destroyed. Well, except for whatever you brought out."  
  
"I don't know. We barely brought more than the clothes on our back. Actually, Xander—wait, that's it, Xander!"  
  
"What about him?"  
  
"Come on. She barely thought about anything else while they were together. I was only like eleven, and I could tell. If we could get him to come down..."  
  
"Look, Cordelia hasn't said anything nice about that kid since, well, since as long as I've known her."  
  
"Cordelia doesn't say many nice things about anyone."  
  
Angel began to refute this claim, until he realized that this Cordy, this real Cordy really didn't. And this Cordy was crazy about that immature, greasy-haired twit.  
  
"Angel," Dawn said, "I know you're not too fond of Xander, but I really think his being here would do her some good."  
  
"Yeah, I guess it would. It's just—"  
  
"I know. It won't help you at all. But it'll help her, and isn't that what you're all about? Doing the right thing for its own sake? Because that's what you claim. But since I've been here, all I've seen you do is sit in this office, making phone calls, and getting a huge paycheck for it."  
  
Dawn expected him to get angry or to deny her accusations, but instead he just said, "You're right. Can you get in touch with him?"  
  
"Um, yeah. I mean, I can email him, but he's traveling a lot so he can't always get internet access. It might take awhile to respond."  
  
"And even then he might not come."  
  
"He will. Look, I know he was kind of immature when you knew him, but did you ever know him to do the wrong thing? I'll take your silence as a 'no'. I'm going to go email him." Dawn walked out of the office, leaving Angel at his desk, improbably feeling even more alone than before. 


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Alright, I've decided that inspired or not, I've got to finish this thing. This isn't the last chapter, but it's a start._

It was only about a week later when the doors to Angel's office burst open to reveal yet another familiar face. Slightly heavier than before, and with an eye patch, but familiar nonetheless.

"Where is she?"

"Nice to see you too."

"Oh, please. I think we can both agree that pleasantries would mean nothing between us."

"She's in Glenview hospital. It's only about fifteen minutes from here."

Xander turned to go.

"Wait. Dawn's downstairs in the lab right now, getting paid for girl-talk. I'll buzz her and get her to call you a car."

Xander was already out the door, but turned back, and with something akin to a smile murmured a "thank you". He sat in the lobby, waiting, until a few seconds later a burst of energy (and shiny, shiny hair) threw herself at him. "Xander!"

"Hey, Dawnie," he said, squeezing her tight. "I've missed you."

"Likewise," she responded, pulling back and standing up.

"Whoa, Dawnie," he cringed, "what is with the..." he gestured emphatically at her cleavage-baring shirt. "I mean, _I_ think that's a bit much, and I don't even have depth perception."

"Shut up," she glared at him. "I'm a working girl now."

"Apparently." he replied, eyebrows raised. "You're just lucky Buffy isn't here to cover you with an always stylish burqa." Dawn looked kind of hurt, so he quickly covered. "I kid. Buff's totally proud of you, if a little jealous. You're already making more than she ever did. Anyway, Deadboy said you'd call me a car?"

"Good Lord, Xand. Are you ever going to stop using that nickname?" Dawn said, as she dialed the phone.

"Don't count on it." Xander smiled. He didn't even realize that Dawn had become his friend until he wasn't seeing her anymore. He had missed her almost as much as he had Willow and Buffy. After she called for the car, she walked him down to the garage to see him off. He offered to let her come, but she declined. So that's how it came to be that twenty minutes later, Xander was at the door of hospital room 314 (of course it had to be 314), about to see a woman he hadn't seen since he was eighteen years old.

He took a deep breath, and pushed the already ajar door open. Cordelia was awake, sitting up, eating green Jello with a disgusted look on her face. He could just imagine the chewing-out the nurses would be getting about the state of the menu. When she heard the door open, she opened her mouth, about to launch into a tirade about how her taxes were high enough that she should at least be able to expect non-powder based food, but was quickly stunned into silence by the face greeting her.

"Surprise."

"You can say that again."

"Surprise."

"Not literally, dumbass."

"Hey, hey, hey, my ass is considered to be quite the intellectual amongst the ass community. At the very least, it's smarter than yours, since it would never be caught dead in some of the pants yours has been in."

"Is Xander Harris criticizing _my_ fashion sense? I think the earth's irony supply has just been sucked dry."

"That didn't even make sense. Your coma's obviously put you off your game."

Cordelia was about to make another angry retort, but all that came out was "Your eye—"

Xander looked down. "I know. I know. Good thing I didn't have it high school or you'd have been dating not just Xander Harris, loser extraordinaire, but Xander Harris, one-eyed loser extraordinaire."

"Actually, I think it's kind of sexy."

"You're full of surprises, you know that, Cordelia Chase?"

"Oh, I'm fully aware. I think my favorite one was when Angel said 'Surprise, something's taken over your body for the last five years.'"

Xander moved closer, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Yeah. I imagined that'd suck."

"I don't think one needs an especially vivid imagination for that."

Xander suddenly grabbed her hand. "I missed you."

She finally let the tears fill her eyes, as she said "I missed you too."

They sat there in silence for awhile until Cordelia abruptly pulled her hand away, and said "Xander, can we get out of here?"

"Cor, you haven't been released yet. The doctor told me it would be at least another week."

"I know. But after?"

"That's rather presumptuous of you, assuming I have all the time in the world to wait for you."

"Have you ever known me to be anything else? Besides, I'm sure your exciting pizza delivery career can be put on hold for a week."

"Oh, like you're one to talk. 'Cause I've seen you in so many quality films since you went to LA."

"Um, hello, possessed by a demon, what's your excuse?"

"First of all, I happen to enjoy my job, which is not delivering pizzas, by the way. And second, I believe if I wanted to complain, I'd have a multitude of excuses, this being one of them," he said, pointing at his eye, or lack thereof.

"Like what?"

"You really want to hear it all?"

"I want to hear something real."

"I guess I should start with the most important thing. What has Dawn told you about Sunnydale?"

"Nothing! No one is telling me anything of substance. It's like they're all afraid I'll break or something."

"Well, we both know I couldn't care less about your supposed fragility, so I guess I should start by telling you Sunnydale is no more."

"What!? Start at the beginning."

"You got a few hours?"

"Do you think if I could go anywhere, I'd be eating _this_?" she replied, motioning towards the Jello.

"Good point. Well, here it goes..."

_A/N: Okay, I know it would probably take longer than two weeks for a coma patient to be released from the hospital, what with all the physical therapy, etc. but I'm taking some artistic license here._


	6. Chapter 6

_I swear, some day, maybe when I'm old and gray, I will finish this story. I'm really sorry for the delay and that after the wait this chapter is so short. The next chapter will be the last, so hopefully I can force myself to do it soon._

Two weeks later they were gone, on their way to the rest of their lives in a rented sedan. Angel wondered if they would part ways or if the rest of their lives would become the rest of their life together. Angel tried to be happy that at least she wasn't alone, but he couldn't quite muster up the energy.

Their goodbye had been awkward to say the least. He had gotten so used to hoping for her return that when she finally did show up in the lobby of Wolfram and Hart, his heart had leapt for a moment before he was reminded that this first visit would be her last. She would never be a regular at the office, never again be the most familiar of faces. Well, she would always be familiar to him—he would just never be to her. Just another person who he loved beyond all reason whose happiness hinged on forgetting him.

She had looked gorgeous, hair short and curly, wearing a green sundress and the manolos she had found in a consignment store and talked about for weeks. He could almost hear his Cordelia's voice in his ear: _You recognized them! You're finally figuring out the finer points of footwear now that I'm barely more than a figment of your imagination. _

She had flashed him her brightest smile and if he hadn't known her so well he might not have recognized that it was the smile she reserved for strangers, for people not him or Wesley or Gunn.

"So Xander and I are off in a minute. He wanted to say goodbye to Dawn, so…"

Angel tugged awkwardly on his sleeve. "Right. Yeah. Well, good luck with everything. If you're ever back in LA…"

"Yeah. Totally." She nodded, stranger smile still plastered on her face.

A stray curl was falling over her face and Angel fought the urge to tuck it back behind her ear. "You look nice," he said.

"Oh yeah? I was a little worried I wouldn't fit into my clothes, seeing as how I haven't exactly been a regular at the gym lately."

"You look beautiful," he blurted out, wishing he could take it back almost immediately.

She didn't look too thrown by this, just took it like she always did when a stranger in a coffee shop asked for her phone number or whether she had ever considered modeling. "Well, duh. I think I need a more objective critic though." Her eyes lit up as she spotted Xander exiting the elevator. "Xander, do I look fat?" she asked teasingly.

"Cordelia, do I look stupid?" was his reply.

"Oh yeah. One hundred percent. But I figured that's what you were going for with the shirt from Bozo the Clown's garage sale."

Their banter continued, flowing as easily as it had so many years ago on those nights in the Bronze or the library. Everything Xander said seemed to be exactly what Cordy needed to hear. Angel was suddenly remembering a night in the cemetery that seemed to be a hundred years ago. "He gets to see you in the sunlight," he had said. Some things never change.

Angel was pulled out of his reverie to see Cordelia waving at him from across the lobby. He managed a half-hearted wave back, but she had already turned back to the elevators and within seconds was out of sight.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Woohoo! I finally finished it. My first completed multi-part story is complete. It sure took long enough though. Thanks for sticking with it. Oh, and the song lyrics are from Gary Jules' "Mad World" and Tracey Chapman's "Telling Stories"._

This was officially the most boring staff meeting ever. Dawn thought longingly back to the days of Scooby meetings in the magic shop where there were snacks and jokes and occasionally people even cracked a smile. To be fair, the W&H staff meetings usually also had a pretty casual atmosphere, with Lorne regaling them with celebrity tales or Gunn explaining some bizarre facet of demon law (for instance, a Talahask demon could kill a Fashmat demons without any repercussions if the Fashmat ate an orange in front of the Talahask). This meeting could not be less interesting if it had been called with the purpose of watching paint dry, with everyone trying to avoid thinking about Cordelia by being as professional as possible. Fred was showing a Power Point about God knows what and Dawn was supposed to be taking notes, but just couldn't bring herself to pay attention. Besides, Wesley seemed to be taking elaborate, color-coded notes already. She could always copy his later and tell Angel they were hers. It wasn't like he'd notice. He had spent the entirety of the meeting so far staring out the window.

Dawn needed to do something and fast or her brain was going to seep out her ears. "For the love of all that is not mind-numbingly boring, would somebody just say what they're actually thinking please! Cordelia, yours or mine, would never have tolerated the overwhelming lameness that is this meeting."

They all looked startled and some looked angry.

"Sorry if our regret at losing Cordelia is _boring_ you," Wesley snapped. "We'll try to be more entertaining while contemplating the fact that we never really knew one of our best friends."

"At least you knew the real Cordy at one point," fired back Gunn before Dawn could respond. "Some of us never even met the real Cordy, save a couple of hours of spell-induced wackiness."

"Now come on Charles," Fred offered helpfully. "I'm sure Cordelia in high school wasn't all that bad. I mean, underneath it all—"

"Would you stop being such a fucking Pollyanna for once in your life, Fred?" Angel spat angrily from the head of the table. All heads turned to him, shocked to hear him lash out at Fred like that. Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne all attempted to chastise him, but he wouldn't let them talk, continuing his rant, "The real Cordelia would have hated all of us. She would have terrorized you in high school, Fred, wouldn't have given the time of day to Wesley or I if it wasn't to spite Xander or Buffy, would have screamed and ran the other way if she saw Lorne, and would have assumed Gunn was going to steal her wallet had he talked to her on the street. So let's all stop kidding ourselves and face the fact that there was none of the real Cordelia in our Cordelia. We loved Cordy because she cared for people and wanted to help them and the real Cordy wanted no such thing."

Angel stood up, shoving his chair back so hard it hit the wall that was almost eight feet behind him hard and toppled over. He was almost out the door when Dawn called out to him. "Wait!" He turned and sneered, as if challenging her to try and make him feel better.

"It seems like I'm the only one here who really knew Cordelia then. And I know I said she was totally selfish, but I mean…there was something there. Something good."

"I don't care if she was a good babysitter. She was never a hero; never would have been."

"Maybe. But I remember one night. We were watching Friends and we heard this scream outside. We looked out the window and there was a vampire who had a girl by the throat. He was going to kill her. I wanted to call 911, but Cordelia said there was no point if it was a vampire." Dawn half-smiled. "I'm a little embarrassed about this now, but being twelve years old, I wanted to just stay inside and wait for Buffy to come home. I thought Cordelia would agree with me, since that's what she always said—that she wasn't responsible for all the stupid people who went out alone after dark. And yeah, she rolled her eyes and sighed loudly and all that, but she ended up grabbing a cross and a stake and going outside. Luckily she didn't have to do anything since Buffy came home and took care of it. But she was ready to do it if she had to. Except that she didn't. Have to, I mean."

Dawn looked up at Angel anxiously, worried what she might see and was pleasantly surprised by something resembling a smile on his face. She turned to face the rest of the gang, who all looked considerably lightened.

"So maybe Fred was right," said Gunn pointedly, looking at Angel. "Maybe the real Cordy had the potential to be our Cordy all along."

"Yeah," said Angel softly, still smiling to himself. "Maybe." He looked at Fred, embarrassed. "Look, Fred—"

"I know," she interrupted. "Don't worry about it."

Angel righted his chair and sat back down. "So let's see what we can do about making this meeting more exciting for Dawn."

Dawn smiled nervously, but relaxed somewhat when she saw that he was smiling too.

An hour and a half later, when Chinese food had already come and gone and everyone else had gone back to work, Dawn and Lorne remained, cleaning up the empty containers and the paper airplanes Gunn had made out of Wesley's notes. Lorne was chattering excitedly about some demon cult responsible for making Steve Guttenberg a star, but for once Dawn wasn't paying attention. Instead she was singing softly under her breath.

_All around me are familiar faces_

_Worn out places_

_Worn out faces_

_Bright and early for the daily races_

_Going nowhere_

_Going nowhere_

_Their tears are filling up their glasses_

_No expression_

_No expression_

When she finally looked up, she saw Lorne staring at her. "Gary Jules, huh?"

"I was watching Donnie Darko last night," she said distractedly.

"Yeah, yeah, Jake Gyllenhaal—be still my beating ass, right?"

Dawn forced out a laugh. She wished he would stop looking at her like that. It really—she suddenly realized the significance of singing in front of Lorne. She looked up to meet his eyes. "You know."

"What, that you lied? Yeah. Cordelia was exactly who Angel guessed, wasn't she? A high school Heather."

"She had her moments. I liked her. And had that situation actually come up, who knows what she might have done. But she was no champion."

"It was sweet of you to lie."

"I wish somebody would lie to me. I always hated when people didn't tell me things. But I don't like being the one who knows the truth."

"Yeah. Neither do I." He looked so sad when he said this that Dawn was forced to remember that he lived with the secret truths more than anyone. He would probably never forgive her for singing in front of him. "We've all got secrets. Things we have to keep from people to protect them. To give them hope."

Lorne turned, leaving Dawn alone in the room. She could hear him singing, his voice getting quieter and quieter as he moved away from her.

_There is fiction in the space between_

_You and everybody_

_Give us all what we need_

_Give us one more sad sordid story_

_But in the fiction of the space between_

_Sometimes a lie is the best thing_

_Sometimes a lie is the best thing._


End file.
